Dutch Researchers Developing Robotic Gerbera Harvester
A gerbera harvester robot must gently hug the stem and then descend down to the best place to harvest the stem.
Greenhouse harvesting robots include many components. For example, vision technology ensures that a plant is recognized.
But what happens next is just as important. The plant must be grasped and harvested, without damaging the product or the crop.
It is essential that the gerbera stems are cut or picked in the right place, which is why the Greenhouse Horticulture Business Unit of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is developing a harvesting robot for gerberas.
A gerbera has a thin, long stem. That means the robot must gently hug the stem and then descend down to the best place to harvest the stem.
WUR currently investigates two solutions: picking or cutting. Picking is preferred for manual harvesting because it is fast and no stems remain in the crop. When picking, the stem must be pulled in the right direction: if this is not done, the crop can be damaged. This is difficult for the robot to determine. That is why force sensors check that the gripper does not experience too much resistance, and thus pulls to the wrong side.
With a harvesting robot that cuts, there is another challenge: the gripper has to go down as far as possible to cut. That is a difficult movement in a place that is hard to reach. A disadvantage of this method is that pieces of stem remain, the WUR is investigating whether this may have adverse effects.
Learn more here.
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